Mobile phone users in the UK accessed the internet via their handsets about 15.9 million times throughout December 2006, says the Mobile Data Association.

The association's report shows an increase of one million unique sessions over November 2006, the prior record.

However, much of the recent increase could be due to seasonal gift-giving said Thomas Husson, a mobile analyst at Jupiter Research.

In the past three months, mobile users accessed the web 45.6 million times.

Unique consumer internet sessions on the O2, Orange, T-Mobile and Vodafone networks were included in the report.

Despite the new numbers, Mr Husson said mobile data was "far from being mainstream".

More usage in 2007

He added that an increase in data use should be expected over the next year due to a larger installed base of internet-capable mobile phones, better user experiences, user education, and new consumer-friendly price points.

The question for mobile network owners is: can they convert web browsers into purchasers of other services